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Old 12-05-2018, 06:01 AM
 
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,937 posts, read 36,951,955 times
Reputation: 40635

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Quote:
Originally Posted by GeePee View Post

Furthermore I find the user name Guineas to be offensive to my people and should be headlined on the news tonight.


Oh, missed that one. I assumed it to be plural of the fowl. Noisy little buggers.
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Old 12-05-2018, 06:49 AM
 
3,211 posts, read 2,118,146 times
Reputation: 3449
Quote:
Originally Posted by timberline742 View Post
Oh, missed that one. I assumed it to be plural of the fowl. Noisy little buggers.
Well you missed it because you weren't looking. And that makes you a racist.
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Old 12-05-2018, 07:00 AM
 
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,937 posts, read 36,951,955 times
Reputation: 40635
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeePee View Post
Well you missed it because you weren't looking. And that makes you a racist.


Of course I am. I was raised in a fundamentally racist society. It's almost impossible not to be (probably impossible), the point is to recognize it and try to work on it. Which I hope I am trying to do, but of course, I could do better.
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Old 12-05-2018, 07:21 AM
 
3,211 posts, read 2,118,146 times
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Just keep reminding yourself every day that you are. It should clear up in no time.
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Old 12-05-2018, 08:28 AM
 
Location: RI, MA, VT, WI, IL, CA, IN (that one sucked), KY
41,937 posts, read 36,951,955 times
Reputation: 40635
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeePee View Post
Just keep reminding yourself every day that you are. It should clear up in no time.
I don't expect it to be something that "clears up", it is a life long battle in our racist society. Just like confronting my sexism is a life long battle. The first step, is to acknowledge that we are living in a racist and sexist society and it deeply has imprinted and impacted upon how we view and interact with the world on a daily basis, and then confronting that sad truth.
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Old 12-05-2018, 09:16 AM
 
15,794 posts, read 20,493,343 times
Reputation: 20974
Quote:
Originally Posted by GeePee View Post
Furthermore I find the user name Guineas to be offensive to my people and should be headlined on the news tonight.
Ha. Never noticed that. I thought of the bird. Guess that means I'm racist towards Italians.


On a more serious note, I remember stories from my dad growing up in 1950's East Boston and dealing with being called that word constantly and getting into fights all the time. He had just moved here from Italy around 7-8 years old and found racism towards Italians to be fairly prominent through his youth and teenage years. Call him the G word and he gets very offended to this day. I guess the post-war years were rough for a while.

Actually, if you read this article, some of the concerns sound very familiar to a lot of the comments you'll hear today regarding modern immigration.

http://www.wishaw.50megs.com/_/Itali...an_Racism.html

Last edited by BostonMike7; 12-05-2018 at 09:26 AM..
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Old 12-05-2018, 09:42 AM
 
3,211 posts, read 2,118,146 times
Reputation: 3449
Quote:
Originally Posted by BostonMike7 View Post
Ha. Never noticed that. I thought of the bird. Guess that means I'm racist towards Italians.


On a more serious note, I remember stories from my dad growing up in 1950's East Boston and dealing with being called that word constantly and getting into fights all the time. He had just moved here from Italy around 7-8 years old and found racism towards Italians to be fairly prominent through his youth and teenage years. Call him the G word and he gets very offended to this day. I guess the post-war years were rough for a while.

Actually, if you read this article, some of the concerns sound very familiar to a lot of the comments you'll hear today regarding modern immigration.

Italian American Racism During the WWII Era & Italian Slur and Slang Definitions
My dad has been here for 43 years and still gets called that. My mom speaks way better English for some reason so she just kinda blends in. I got called that. I got called fat sometimes. I called the Irish kids micks sometimes. I used the R word when people did something stupid.

I realize it's not and was never proper, but I loved and still love most of those R's and Micks. And also to the N's and F's that ran with my crew. We were all one unit. No matter creed, color, sexual preference.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNoDgHnB1Hk
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Old 12-05-2018, 10:24 AM
 
Location: Providence, RI
12,836 posts, read 22,014,769 times
Reputation: 14129
Quote:
Originally Posted by timberline742 View Post
Of course I am. I was raised in a fundamentally racist society. It's almost impossible not to be (probably impossible), the point is to recognize it and try to work on it. Which I hope I am trying to do, but of course, I could do better.
This. Every single one of us has biases toward anything/one that is not us. We all need to pay attention to it and try and work on it/fight it. The actual "snowflakes" bristle any time they hear the word "racist" because they couldn't possibly be racist. The people yelling the n-word and burning the crosses, those are the racists! The failing NYT has a great video on recognizing bias. This goes beyond race too - we have biases about literally everything. It's incredibly important to understand that and function with that in mind instead of just brushing it off and saying "I'm not racist!"

Talk to anyone who has experienced racism. They almost certainly prefer the blatant n-word shouting cross burning racism. Both suck, but at least the blatant stuff is obvious and easy to spot. The biases, and the people that refuse to acknowledge their own bias are the worst. These are the bosses who will smile and be polite during an interview but only hire the people who look/talk like them. They're the people who will donate $5 to inner-city programs but look down at their feet when they walk by a person of color in the grocery store. It's not getting hit by a boulder, it's fighting an endless onslaught of pebbles. It takes its toll.

This postcard could potentially be a boulder if it was conscious and intentional on the part of the author. But even if it wasn't, it's another pebble in that it's completely oblivious of the area's pretty awful history on the race front. And that's a big oopsy from the Historical Society who should be expected to have a good bead on that.
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Old 12-05-2018, 10:28 AM
 
Location: Providence, RI
12,836 posts, read 22,014,769 times
Reputation: 14129
Quote:
Originally Posted by BostonMike7 View Post
On a more serious note, I remember stories from my dad growing up in 1950's East Boston and dealing with being called that word constantly and getting into fights all the time. He had just moved here from Italy around 7-8 years old and found racism towards Italians to be fairly prominent through his youth and teenage years. Call him the G word and he gets very offended to this day. I guess the post-war years were rough for a while.
My girlfriend's grandparents are 1st generation Italian. They hate that I'm Irish-Catholic (though very loosely on both fronts as my family has been here for over a century) and talk about how awful the Irish were. They've mentioned being called the G word.

On the flip side, my grandfather got upset when he saw there was a TV show called "The Mic." Says how derogatory it is toward the Irish. He also got mad at someone in my family for using the term "Paddy Wagon" because it was also derogatory against the Irish (apparently the term came about because the "drunk Irish" were always getting rounded up and taken away in the wagon - hence Paddy Wagon). So some of that stuff definitely still resonates.
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Old 12-05-2018, 10:42 AM
 
1,296 posts, read 1,063,706 times
Reputation: 1572
The level of self-loathing and self-flogging I’m seeing here is beyond astounding...
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